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4 May, 2010
Mine workers are backing a shareholders revolt against Xstrata Chief’s 41 % pay increase from last year, at the AGM of Swiss mining giant Xstrata on 5 May.
A delegation of four coal miners from New South Wales and Queensland will travel to the AGM in remote Zug Switzerland, where Xstrata has its headquarters.
CFMEU Mining and Energy Vice President and delegation leader Wayne McAndrew said the mining giant had spent the last year fighting a 3 % pay rise for mine workers, while Mick Davis earned $US7.75 million last year, a payrise of 41 % compared with the $US5.5 million he picked up in 2008.
“Xstrata’s Australian coal operations are the most profitable parts of the company’s extensive global operations. Yet one quarter of Xstrata’s Australian coal mining operations currently face industrial disputes or unrest because of the company’s anti worker stance”
“The union is able to work constructively with mining companies across Australia, but Xstrata has continually and consistently refused to work with us to gain the best results for everyone concerned in the mining industry, and most importantly the mine workers,” said Wayne McAndrew.
“Xstrata is a company that is engaging in activities that are harming the future profits of the company and has the potential to affect its overseas mergers and acquisitions.”
The miners union is representing its members in their pursuit of three basic conditions: job security, equal pay for equal work and a legally enforceable avenue for arbitration. In 2009, 37 percent of operating profit for the entire business came from Australian coal. Australian coal also has the highest profit margin of any part of the business, at 27 percent.
Lee Webb a miner at the Tahmoor Colliery in Sydney’s south-west is travelling to Switzerland for the first time.
“I am going to Zug to show the shareholders that it is the rank-and-file workers like me who suffer when Xstrata will not work with the Union,” he said.
“I want the shareholders to know that we are not asking for much, just to be treated fairly and decently and to have job security and a little bit of respect for the dangerous job we do for the company.”
The delegation will be led by Wayne McAndrew, CFMEU Vice President, Mining and Energy Division. He will be joined by coal miners from Newlands open cut mine in Queensland and Tahmoor Colliery in NSW.
The Geneva-based International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Union (ICEM) is supporting its Australian affiliate, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) in its protest against Xstrata. The ICEM is a global union federation consisting of 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries.
Spokesperson: Wayne McAndrew will be available for interviews from Switzerland on +61 417 230 441(CFMEU); Please contact Dick Blin, ICEM Information Office, 079 734 8994 (mobile) for media assistance inside Switzerland.
ENDS
The Xstrata AGM will be held in Zug, Switzerland on Wednesday 5 May at 11:00 am local time. (- 8 hours Australian EST)
Media: For photos of miners at the AGM and to arrange interviews contact Angela Cuming (EMC) 0439 411 774